Five local homeowners decked the halls and rooms of their residences with holly, wreaths and all sorts of Christmas decorations last weekend as part of the second annual Homes for the Holidays tour.
Proceeds from the Saturday, Dec. 3 tour will be donated to both the Westlock and District Food Bank and Santa’s Anonymous — both are charities that Westlock’s chapter of the Alberta Beta Phi sorority felt could use a boost this holiday season.
Last year’s event sold out, raising nearly $2,000 for both charities. This year, only 81 of the 100 tickets were sold, but organizers said they are still pleased with the turnout.
“We’re just happy to get what we got because any money for the food bank and Santa’s Anonymous — the local charities — is very important,” said sorority member Linda Cunningham. “If it’s $1,000, it’s way more than they had yesterday, so we’re just thankful that people supported it as well as they did and that the homeowners opened their homes to do this.”
The group had hopes to sell out the event again this year, but Cunningham said she felt the lower number of tickets purchased is a result of harsh economic times.
“I think it’s just a sign of the times, you know. The Festival of Trees was really down in numbers and so were some others,” she said, adding that Homes for the Holidays tours in other municipalities were down as well.
The amount raised is estimated at around $1,800, which takes into account $1,620 raised in tickets sales and the remainder coming from a Christmas raffle.
Five homes were featured this year, all of which were different from last year’s tour. Three of the homes were located in the Busby area, with one located in the Town of Westlock and the other just a few kilometers west of town.
Sorority member Lorna Primrose said the Homes for the Holidays tour is one of the largest events for the sorority and takes months to plan.
“We were planning this in the summer, the early summer,” she said, adding many of the homes are selected based on word of mouth and interest seems to be increasing each year.
Despite increased interest, she said the sorority hopes to keep the event relatively small.
“I think we’re going to keep it with the 100 people and five homes. You don’t want too many people going through your home,” she laughed.
For Claire and Tony Stitson, who had their home features along the tour this year, she said it was something that was bound to happen.
“We’ve attended many in the city in Edmonton and St. Albert and we attended the first one held last year in Westlock and we just loved it,” she said.
Stitson has a reputation of going all out for the holidays and was contacted by one of the organizers to see if she would like to have her home featured along the route this year.
She said she thought it would be a great idea, because either way, she was going to decorate.
“I change it, but I usually decorate for the theme of the season each year regardless,” she said. “This is just part of our family background. I have four daughters and this was just something we loved to do together for Christmas.”
The process of decorating her home and cabin took roughly three weeks, she said, and was tackled in various stages.
Antique toys and family heirlooms were displayed amongst the decorations, which consisted of dining room ready for a Christmas feast and a total of eight trees shows throughout the home.
Lucky viewers also had the change to hope on a short sleigh ride to view her cabin, which was also decorated for the event.
Although her home won’t be featured in the tour next year, as the organizers said they want to keep switching up the homes to keep the tour fresh, she said she will definitely be attending.
“It’s just part of getting in the Christmas spirit. It really is,” she said.
